Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba is clapping back at criticism of her scoring — with help from Taylor Swift.
Inaba, 57, shared a pointed TikTok video on Wednesday, October 22, mouthing along to one of Swift’s new songs, “Actually Romantic,” taken from her record-breaking The Life of a Showgirl album, while applying her makeup.
“But it’s actually sweet, all the time you’ve spent on me / It’s honestly wild, all the effort you’ve put in / It’s actually romantic,” the dancer and choreographer mouthed before blowing a kiss to the camera.
“My Wednesday morning anthem,” she wrote over the video, which was captioned, “It’s actually romantic #dwts #fyp.”
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Inaba has faced criticism over what some viewers perceive to be harsh scoring on the 34th season of Dancing With the Stars, which is currently airing on ABC.
“Some of your dances are starting to feel like I’m watching the same dance over and over again,” she told Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel and her professional dance partner, Pasha Pashkov during the October 14 dedication night episode. “Try to give a little bit more variety as far as dynamics. This is also on you, Pasha.”
In an interview with Variety last week, Pashkov called the comments “unfair.”
“I was not happy. I always get protective. For me, that comment felt unfair, especially being that she said that the dances looked similar,” Pashkov, 39, said. “But the thing is, we did have a quickstep, and we had a jive this week. These are two dances that very, very similar.”
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“If we had dances that were drastically different, and they felt the same, I’d understand. But, based on the dances that we had, that did not feel like it made sense to me. In my heart, I’m overprotective because I know how hard Danielle is working. I don’t think she deserved that comment,” he added.
On October 15, Inaba tackled criticism of her scoring and accusations of “favoritism” in her Instagram comments.
“Giving Whitney [Leavitt] a 9 but Robert [Irwin] an 8, GIRLLL please get it together,” one person wrote.
Another said, “Can you explain why you gave Whitney a 9 when she was off beat and also has prior dance experience so she shouldn’t be off beat, but Robert and even Jen [Affleck] had a beautiful dance, timing was impeccable and you scored them lower? Just confusing to watch and wondering what goes through your mind when giving those scores.”
Inaba responded in the comments, “It’s okay to disagree about what we see. That’s what makes our show great,” she wrote. “You have a say in the matter. We want you to vote for what you love and believe in. I appreciate your comment and the way you expressed your feelings. ❤️ thank you for your passion and your opinion.”
Inaba has served as a judge on Dancing With the Stars across all 34 seasons since the show began in 2005. She currently sits on the judging panel alongside Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
